The four UK football associations – including the FAW – have officially submitted a bid for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2035.

The tournament would be the largest single-sport event ever staged in the UK, and the first FIFA World Cup hosted in the country since 1966.

The bid includes 22 proposed stadiums – 16 in England, three in Wales, two in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland – across 16 host cities. With 63 million people living within two hours of a proposed venue, it is set to be the most accessible tournament ever.

The three Welsh grounds include two in Cardiff – the Principality Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium – as well as the redeveloped Cae Ras ground in Wrexham, set to be increased to a capacity of 18,000.

Its current capacity is only 12,600 but the ambitious Hollywood-owned club have already renovated the historic old ground, with plans to expand further.

Fifa announced in April that Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland had provided the only “valid” bid to stage the tournament, and the home nations presented more details on their host cities and stadiums on Friday.

It might be that only two Welsh stadiums are used in 2035, with Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney suggesting that one of the venues in Cardiff will miss out.

“We’re putting forward three stadiums. It’ll be two that we actually finally get to because we’ve got to make a decision between Cardiff City Stadium or the National Stadium of Wales as it’s known in the Uefa parlance,” he said.

“We’d like it, as with Welsh Government, to be both north and south [Wales]. We’re bringing Euro 2028 here which has six matches, with the opening match in Cardiff, but for the Women’s World Cup in 2035 we want to make this a pan-Wales event, and to have it in the north of Wales will be very special to us.”

Wrexham’s Cae Ras is the oldest international football stadium in the world still in use, having hosted Wales’ first fixture in 1877.

“Wrexham are building the Kop at the moment but they would have plans to develop that further before 2035,” Mooney added.

“I don’t know the precise number, but I do know that it would be above the threshold that we need to host the Women’s World Cup in 2035.

“There was huge support from Wrexham Council and from governments and so on but, as they continue on their journey towards the Premier League and as they develop the women’s side of the game, they’ll want the city to continue to develop.

“The infrastructure needs to continue to develop around it so the 2035 Women’s World Cup gives them a great chance to have something to aim towards apart from being in the Premier League.

“Also to have a World Cup finals coming to Wrexham is another great layer on top of the story that’s already produced so many great layers for Wrexham.”

The tournament would involve 104 matches contested by 48 teams over 39 days, with 48 team base camp training sites, 82 venue-specific training sites and 32 FIFA Fan Festival Sites proposed.

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